Avoiding Revenge Porn in the Philippines (and Everywhere Else)

The power of social media in this issue is incredible – and double-edged. Becoming famous via revenge porn is certainly not the suggested way of becoming famous, so taking the following steps could help:

1. Don’t take private or intimate pictures or videos in the first place. It sounds like common sense to many people, but after hearing stories from both victims and those who currently share ‘captured moments’ with a loved one, these pictures/videos are treated as harmless and there is a great level of trust between the two – until it goes public and presents one with a personal PR nightmare. 
2. If you do have them already, have a serious talk with your partner and agree to delete all copies of these media. The similarity between nearly all revenge porn instances is that there was simply no suspicion that the jilted lover would commit an act that will both disgrace and humiliate his/her former partner. It’s all good when times are rosy, but people do stupid things when emotional.

Now, pay it forward to potential and actual victims of revenge porn:

1. Stop searching, watching, and saving revenge porn pictures and/or videos. Put yourself in the shoes not of the victim but the victim’s parents or children. The pain to the family of the person should also be a concern. There was already one prick (whoever uploaded or submitted the image/video) – there’s no need to add yourself to the list.
2. Report suspicions of revenge porn in the Philippines to the proper authorities, especially if you think the victim may be a minor. I’m not going to recommend specific bodies as I am personally unsure of which ones will take action, but women’s rights groups and welfare bodies are good places to start. I wouldn’t recommend news networks; we’re trying to protect identities here, remember?
3. If you know someone who is about to upload or submit to a website a kind of revenge porn, have a serious talk with them. Try your best to convince him/her that this is not a wise course of action, and that it will only end up hurting him/her, as well as countless other individuals aside from the actual victim. It’s just not nice.

Revenge porn in the Philippines is nothing new, not in our country or the world at large, but as part of one of the biggest social media communities in the world (the Philippines alone has about 31 million people on Facebook) we can certainly do our part in keeping the Internet safe both for us and our children.

For more on social media, take a minute to visit my personal blog.

Featured image from dbagjournal, retrieved on April 25, 2013.

Staying Safe from Revenge Porn in the Philippines